WoW Armory for the iPhone: A Review

Now THIS is interesting. I assume all of you who are both Blizzard fans and iPhone owners have already heard the news, but for those of you who haven't: Today, Blizzard released the WoW Armory app for the iPhone. I'm a Mac user and an iPhone owner, so I thought I'd take the time to write a quick review.

I've also included a gallery of screenshots, and the text of the actual app info in the iTunes store. Check after the break to see all the info. :)

So this is what the iTunes store has to say about the app:

The World of Warcraft Mobile Armory application for your iPhone is a portable reference that helps you keep track of your characters, plan your adventures, and keep up with the activities of your guild, similar to the World of Warcraft Armory on the Web (www.wowarmory.com). This convenient app is easy to install and contains these powerful features:

View all of your World of Warcraft characters, along with their stats, equipment, achievements, and more.

Browse the full complement of items available in the game, use the talent calculator to decide the best spec for your character, and stay up-to-date on the latest World of Warcraft news.

Airtime or Wi-Fi connection required for use. Please note that you must have a World of Warcraft account or Battle.net account to log in and use this application. You can try World of Warcraft for free at www.warcraft.com

First thing I noticed about this app is that it's fast. I've used a lot of WoW-related iPhone apps, and the most consistent problem is that they're big, bloated and sluggish. They're all very pretty, but as a result they have a tendency to spend a lot of processing power on fancy graphics. Blizzard's app, somehow, manages to pack all those fancy graphics into an app that's surprisingly responsive, even if you don't have one of the new 3Gs iPhones. It's also filled with a bunch of cute sound effects—page turns and such—all pulled directly from the game. A nice touch.

Now for the actual functionality: The app requires you to log into your actual WoW account, but a lot of the Armory functionality requires you to log in anyway. Fortunately it doesn't require you to sign up enter your authenticator code, since I ALSO use the iPhone authenticator app, and that would require some pretty impressive iPhone gymnastics. :)

The app has some pretty impressive capabilities. It's very intuitive, everything seems to follow pretty naturally. The user interface works pretty similarly to what you're used to seeing in most iPhones, although rather than scrolling to the right (like the iPod functionality does), it does a nifty sort of page-lift animation, similar to the Google Maps app. It even pulls some fancy little extras, including keeping your Armory-pinned character accessible with a button on the bottom right, and putting a link to that character's guild calendar on the home screen.

The talent calculator is very well put-together (although I admit that I still rather prefer the one I had in mind for Wowhead). The important thing is that it's responsive, and you can easily determine the effects of each talent—something that's difficult to do on the small screen. It's a little difficult to get an overall impression of a build the way you can when you're looking at a side by side talent calc, but I'm not entirely sure that's possible.

The app also has a full item database, which I found pretty impressive. Of course it queries the items from the Armory itself, rather than trying to store an item database on your iPhone (which we know from experience is probably more trouble than it's worth), but in 3G it's plenty fast, and in Wi-Fi it's faster. The only real drawback to the item database is that it's basically impossible to filter—you can either search for items by name, or you can browse items by category—but once you get down to the categories, it just shows you a list of, say, all plate chest items—and they're broken up into pages of 25 results, which don't have room for anything other than name and item level. There's also no ability to filter, and it suffers from all the other problems that the Armory has as an item database anyway—no comments, no screenshots, etc.

All in all, this is a really solid app—and of course, it's free. The only real question is: Was it worthwhile shutting down the other Armory-based apps? There are a lot of other apps that Blizzard has asked to pull their apps, threatening legal action. Blizzard is entirely within their rights to do this, of course—the Armory is their site, and it's their data. But why close down the other people who are making their own apps, especially when they're providing their own app for free. What do you guys suppose Blizzard is thinking here?

Comments

Comment by doktorstick

I agree that the item lists are something to be desired. When I look for cloth, I don't want to see every cloth piece. Please, at least break it down by slot.

Also, I was disappointed that I could not click on an item and in the paper doll and "find upgrade".

So, wowhead, when is your iPhone app coming out?

Comment by septor

on 2009-07-16T16:08:45-05:00

Awesome, now we can stare at the same, non-updated page for 6+ days on our Iphone!

Going to have to go with this. My DK has not been updated since the 26th of last month and I log into it every day.

It's a nice feature, but I think they need to work on the overall performance of the Armory before they start branching out.

Comment by iceemaker

on 2009-07-16T16:35:46-05:00

I doubt Blizzard solely has the community's interest at heart, providing an app for free that others were charging for. There has to be some angle.

Comment by TheOnyx

on 2009-07-16T16:38:29-05:00

I noticed a distinct lack of faction reputation information and statistics. It would seem like this is not a complete replacement for the armory, although it does allow faster access to much of the data.

Comment by Blackboy0

on 2009-07-16T19:03:50-05:00

FINALLY a good WoW App! I love this :D

The talent calculator is very well put-together (although I admit that I still rather prefer the one I had in mind for Wowhead)

Sahweeeet... =P

Comment by voydd

on 2009-07-16T19:25:15-05:00

nice very nice... now time for google's Android app:)

Comment by Fyuu

on 2009-07-17T00:36:38-05:00

Yeah, I came across this yesterday while I was armory'ing a fail Hunter from my Nexus pug. Very intuitive little app; speedy, functional, yet concise so can't really argue at all.

BTW, I'm on iPod Touch.

Comment by Irith

on 2009-07-17T01:07:26-05:00

Very functional... I would like to be able to filter searches better, and be able to save talent builds. Other than that, works just fine.

Comment by Setters

on 2009-07-17T05:18:08-05:00

After hearing about this application, I went straight to the App Store and downloaded for my iPhone.

Gotta say it's pretty nice, now I can pug check straight from my Phone instead of having to alt+tab away from WoW.

Comment by Sentrios

on 2009-07-17T06:52:07-05:00

Damn, why does Blizz make everything for the iPhone? Do they have a some kind of deal with Apple?If this continues like this, I have to buy one...

Comment by Kthnxbye

on 2009-07-17T07:41:52-05:00

Damn, why does Blizz make everything for the iPhone?

Because; iPhone>rest

Comment by Procul

on 2009-07-18T09:09:20-05:00

This basically combines the Warcraft Chest, WoW Characters, and Talent Calculator app and combines them in a much more streamline and faster app. I wonder how the devs of those three apps feel about this, now that their apps are obsolete...

Comment by Beefjerkie

on 2009-07-18T23:35:53-05:00

I have gotten this app, and im very happy with it. Very fast and im bored at work so an another thing i can do on my iphone :P

Comment by tidus4eva

on 2009-07-19T07:41:58-05:00

This basically combines the Warcraft Chest, WoW Characters, and Talent Calculator app and combines them in a much more streamline and faster app. I wonder how the devs of those three apps feel about this, now that their apps are obsolete...

I would say it's a load off their mind to build other apps (or have a normal life) so that they don't have to endlessly update their app every time a new patch or expansion comes out. I mean, if you look at the last push of WarcraftChest, that's not fully updated with Ulduar loot, however the WowArmory updates generally when an item is discovered on a realm and added to a characters armory.

Comment by Nishika

on 2009-07-20T06:01:38-05:00

It's a nice feature, but I think they need to work on the overall performance of the Armory before they start branching out.

True.. but remember the Armory is still in BETA... I lol'd - see logo on the european Armory - its been saying beta for months.. years now. :|

The iPhone app is nice, but lacks some key features like the possibility to send the talent spec by e-mail, and as mentioned in the OP, item filtering capability.